It's time we romanticised our tea, just like Ethiopian coffee
Xn Iraki
By
XN Iraki
| Oct 20, 2026
On my last visit to Ethiopia, the hotel I stayed in gave me a free packet of coffee to take home. That was pleasantly surprising.
On a second visit, I found a young lady serving free traditional Ethiopian coffee at the airport. She had no problem being taken a photo.
Clearly, Ethiopia is leveraging on coffee to hook you emotionally. And they keep reminding us coffee came from Ethiopia.
Coffee is one of the country's leading exports. In 2024, the top exports of Ethiopia were Coffee $1.46 billion (Sh189 billion), and Cut Flowers $285 million (Sh37 billion). Notice the gap between the two exports. We can update the data.
Beyond coffee, Ethiopia is known for her biggest airline, now 80 years old. Add her history, more so the connection to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
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Like Kenya and Tanzania, she too claims to be the origin of man. A discussion for another day.
Ethiopia seems to have cracked how to market a country, softly, through our tastes. Could that be more effective than TV adverts?
My guess is yes in the long run. An advert is “far “and less emotional. Tasting coffee is real and emotional, particularly the way it’s served.
It’s like comparing a face to face meeting with a phone call. Ethiopia may have figured out we still need the human touch in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
Can we learn from Ethiopia? Why is Kenyan tea not served at the airports and other places frequented by our visitors?
Do we have tea tasting like wine tasting? How many visitors from Kenya take home a packet of premium Kenyan tea?
Why has tea not been romanticised like coffee despite being one of our leading exports? Let’s take coffee is different from let’s take tea !
In a number of Kenyan hotels visitors are welcomed with a glass of juice. Why not tea?
We have over the years “cheapened” tea, even equating it to corruption. It’s time we rescued, rehabilitated, and romanticised tea.
The Britons did that, remember English tea, yet UK does not grow any tea.
Over the years UK has “owned” tea through branding, repackaging and re-exporting. They have even romanticized it, taken “high tea”?
Ethiopians have shown us how to market and romanticise coffee. Let’s do the same with our tea. Let’s give credit, you can now buy high-quality tea from the factory gate. Njunu and Kagwe tea factories even add ginger and masala.